If you want to engage with your existing clients or potential customers on a more personal level, email and SMS are two of the most important sources.

Both email and SMS can help you find new customers, but they are even more powerful for customer retention.

If you want to be successful, you need to use the best email and SMS marketing software for your particular type of business.

You want to look for a tool that features more than unlimited emails or just email marketing automation. You want a text and email marketing solution that fits your business needs.

Why email marketing?

With over 4 Billion email users, your message won’t get lost among thousands of ads. The same can be said about SMS marketing (text marketing), you can reach anyone who has a smartphone.  

Email marketing has one of the highest ROIs. You can earn $36 for every $1 spent.

Why SMS automation?

SMS marketing is equally powerful. According to Forbes, around 90% of all text messages are read within just three minutes of delivery. This level of engagement can’t be witnessed in any other kind of marketing.

Choosing the right tool is more than looking for advanced features like custom sign-up forms, a campaign monitor, or social media ads.

It doesn’t matter if you have an online store or help people face-to-face. Choosing the best email and SMS marketing software is a decision you want to put some thought into.

However, with such a plethora of options available in the market, it could be a bit difficult to find the software perfect for you. Most email marketing tools have features like a drag-and-drop editor, multiple contact lists, reports on your click-through rates, and the ability to create personalized marketing messages.

How to find the best email and SMS marketing software in 2022

Email marketing strategy is important. So is SMS marketing strategy.

But your time is important, too!

If you try to figure this out yourself, you’ll have to go through product reviews, sign up for a bunch of free trials, etc. Instead of going that route, I will suggest you go through the list below and you will find a platform that’s perfect for your marketing needs.

And if you don’t even want to spend the time to read the rest of this post, you can jump to my top picks: Constant Contact and ConvertKit. I like these two tools so much that I became an affiliate for them (as well as a few others listed in this article). That means if you purchase an account through me, I get a small commission. But your price is the same as if you bought it directly from them.

What is marketing automation?

There are many marketing software tools that you can start using today. But what exactly are they?

Each email marketing service and SMS marketing automation service has its own nuances. But essentially, marketing automation means you set up a series of events (emails or text messages) to collect customer data. Then messages fire off when someone takes a particular action with you. That could include:

• Signing up for your email or SMS marketing list

• Agreeing to receive web push notifications

• Using dynamic discount codes for online stores

• Opening an email or text message

• Clicking on a link in an email or text message

9 best email and text marketing software tools

In the list below, I have different marketing tools and identified their strengths and weaknesses.

You can go through these options and choose the option that suits your business the most. Some are more basic and some have more advanced features. In any case, with the right tool, you’ll be able to create a plan for successful email marketing and text marketing.

Constant Contact is a well-known email marketing software tool. It focuses on small businesses in the United States. But it’s more than an email marketing system. They launched a website builder several years ago and SMS marketing in 2022.

The biggest selling point of this email and text marketing platform is its free, unlimited chat and telephone customer support. If you have questions, one of their success coaches can help you along. That means you can successfully launch your marketing campaign without having any technical skills. And you don’t have to drive trying to manage your digital marketing efforts.

That makes it one of the best email marketing services.

If you have an e-commerce business (like a Shopify store) or are thinking about starting one, Constant Contact is great for you. It integrates with Shopify as well as Facebook, Google, or any other platforms where you run your ads.

They have a ton of great email templates and work well with several eCommerce platforms. You can also run your social media marketing through Constant Contact.

Another thing I like about Constant Contact is the extensive library of helpful resources that they offer. They also regularly host live online and in-person training sessions to teach small businesses in the United States the basics of email marketing and now SMS marketing.

Constant Contact has a 60-day free trial (no credit card required). That’s one of the longest free trial periods around. The paid plans start at only $9.99 per month. Considering their excellent support, $9.99 per month is a bargain.

And if you go for their premium package, you will have access to features like email automation, surveys and polls, donations, online campaigns, and much more. 

All around, it’s one of the best email marketing platforms.

Pros:

• Interface and generally the whole campaign experience are extremely beginner-friendly.

• Has one of the lowest spam rates.

• A huge gallery of stock images for you to use in your emails.

• Lots of great email templates.

• A great email management system.

Cons:

• Constant Contact’s email automation software isn’t as sophisticated as some other tools. If you are a content creator, you may be better off with a tool like ConvertKit.

ConvertKit

To all the bloggers and content creators out there, if you are looking for email and text software, ConvertKit should be your first choice. It specializes in building landing pages and email marketing. They excel at helping you manage your customer journey.

This amazing email marketing platform has a fantastic landing page builder. Its drag-and-drop builder makes it easy for you to collect emails and start running campaigns.

ConvertKit also allows you to embed a form in between your blog posts or anywhere else on your site. And once a reader fills out that form, an automated welcome mail will be sent to them.

Marketing automation and sales automation are where ConvertKit shines. You can schedule emails, design auto-responders, and other marketing campaigns based on user behavior. This helps keep the time you spend on online marketing to a minimum.

It isn’t the best option when it comes to SMS marketing, but overall, it is a great product. To unlock its SMS marketing potential, you will have to integrate it with platforms like Textiful. But they make that easy and you’ll be able to use advanced marketing automation to send personalized messages to your customers and prospects.

ConvertKit offers a free 14-day trial that you can cancel anytime, no questions asked. They can do a personalized onboarding video call with you. That makes it another best email marketing platform on my list.

Pros:

• Great for bloggers and people selling digital content on their websites.

• Advanced analysis reports give you real-time ideas of what’s working and what’s not.

• Responsive and effective customer support.

• You can add a virtual assistant to your account

• A straightforward and easy-to-navigate interface.

Cons:

• Not the best value for money.

• May be more than you need if you work with your customers face-to-face.

Marketing360

Marketing360 is one of the most beginner-friendly platforms out there, especially for small businesses.

Marketing360 brought all the tools a small business needs including website creation, content marketing, email, and SMS marketing under the same roof. 

It can be a bit overwhelming to strategize, execute and keep tabs on a marketing campaign, especially if you are just starting. Marketing360 aims to solve this classic small business conundrum while keeping the price affordable. 

Considering the versatility and variety of features, the interface of this amazing software is clean and understandable. You will have access to a specialized CRM that will let you analyze your campaign results in real-time.

They also have a team of copywriters, marketers, and other experts to help you out. With marketing360, you can hire a whole marketing team for just $395 per month. So, if you are a complete newbie and don’t even have a basic knowledge of email and text marketing, you can launch a successful campaign in a matter of hours. 

Before investing in a marketing team, you need to have a clear understanding of what you are expecting from your campaign. You should have a basic knowledge of what constitutes a successful campaign or at least have clear goals. Otherwise, you may feel like you’ve lost control over your marketing.

Pros:

• Wide variety of features.

• A talented team of experts.

• Pricing is specially curated for small business owners.

• An editable and understandable CRM.

Cons:

• After spending several hundred dollars, you may still feel like you don’t have control over your marketing campaigns.

SendinBlue

SendinBlue is a contender when it comes to text and email marketing solutions.

Its interface is a bit difficult to navigate, but there are elaborate guides to help you out. The efficiency and ease that SendinBlue brings to the table make the extra time you spend figuring things out completely worth it. 

SendinBlue allows you to set up different campaigns with completely different formats at the same time. You can schedule SMS and email campaigns and start them at the time of your liking.

Like all good email marketing and SMS marketing tools, it also offers great personalization capabilities and you can address the recipient with their name, company name, etc.

You can also monitor the performance of your campaigns through the tabs. And the best thing about SendinBlue is their free plan. You can send up to 300 emails per day for free. For an upcoming entrepreneur who doesn’t have funds to spare, this could result in a completely free marketing campaign. 

Pros:

• Real-time analysis of your campaign.

• Affordable premium plans and a generous free plan.

• Great contact management system

• Very responsive customer service.

Cons:

• They have to verify your email list before starting the campaign which is an extra step.

Bitrix24

If you are just starting and don’t have the budget to hire a professional marketing team, Bitrix24 could be your go-to option for all of your email marketing needs. It’s a CRM that is more than capable of running your SMS marketing and email marketing and has loads of marketing automation features. 

You can send emails or text individually or run a bulk campaign, and you can easily automate the whole process.

It could be a bit confusing at the start, as Bitrix24 doesn’t have the best interface. However, once you get the hang of it, you can save hours of work by automating the whole process.

Also, if you want to go one step further and look for an all-in-one platform, know that Bitrix can be integrated with all social media platforms and is also capable of calling, messaging, and even emailing.

Also, if your business helps people in different parts of the world, you will be delighted to know that you will be able to do SMS marketing in over 100 countries. These features make the $99 (USD) price tag worth every penny. 

Pros:

• International SMS marketing.

• Quick and easy automation.

• Number of contacts isn’t fixed in any plan.

• Extremely versatile set of features.

Cons:

• Chatbot integration could be nicer.

SendPulse

SendPulse is a 3-in-1 solution that takes care of all of your web notifications, email, and SMS needs.

It has a very intuitive interface and is extremely easy to set up. This email and text software has all the standard marketing features like audience segmentation, a/b testing, and much more. 

With SendPulse, you can send up to 15,000 emails to 2500 contacts every month for free. Also, if you are interested in getting the premium packages, they don’t cost that much either.

SendPulse also uses cutting-edge AI algorithms to fine-tune your approach to every single contact. The algorithm deeply analyzes the behavior and interaction of your customers with your brand and then helps you discover the best possible approach.

That sounds great, but it doesn’t happen right away. You’ll need to run at least 10 email campaigns for algorithms to analyze your audience. 

Pros:

• Versatility of features and functions.

• You can send bulk emails, SMS, and web notifications.

• Affordable price.

• Intuitive user interface.

Cons:

• Analyzing the result is a bit confusing.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a well-established digital marketing tool. Some budding entrepreneurs opt for ActiveCampaign thanks to its inexpensive price tag and high-end features.

The analytical insights that this email and text marketing platform provides help create a good marketing strategy.

It also contains text and email blast services for businesses that are looking for potential clients.

Also, the contact management here is extremely good. You can find the engagement history, profiles, lead scoring, and task tracking of every individual contact. You can also easily automate the whole marketing process. Once you have set up your campaign, running it again and again will require very minimum personal effort.

In most cases, the interface is also extremely beginner-friendly. It might be a bit confusing to do A/B testing and segmentation, but after a few quick guides, you will be good to go.

Pros:

• Inexpensive price models.

• Remarkable task automation capabilities.

• More than 540 automation recipes.

• 36 template options to choose from.

Cons:

• Lacks features like survey builder and transactional emails.

Sendlane

If automation is your priority, then Sendlane should be your go-to email and text marketing software. You can choose a template from their library, do slight edits, create a personalized mail and send them to your targeted audience.

And once you have run a few campaigns and have gathered some data, you can run targeted campaigns based on demographics, sales behavior, location, and much more. The whole idea is to enable you to work smarter, not harder. The interface is also simple to use. Sendlane offers codeless integrations with platforms like Shopify, Woocommerce, Privy, etc.

If your business involves SMS marketing, you can use the blast feature to send thousands of messages at once. You can also use the power of behavioral analysis to decide what kind of message you are going to send.

Pros:

• You can automate the initial message, follow-up message, and even feedback.

• 24/7 available customer service.

• Easy to set up and run.

• Great segmentation and testing capabilities.

Cons:

• You will have to cope with occasional bugs.

Klaviyo

If you are looking for more text and email blast services, take a look at Klaviyo.

You can segment your contact list based on different factors like age, location, behavior, and engagement and send all of them a message at once. The results are also very easy to monitor thanks to a very intuitive dashboard. You can run A/B campaigns and test different strategies to choose the one that brings in the best results. 

You can also easily automate your campaigns by deploying a few triggers that will execute a specific response without any input. Dynamic blocks are another great feature to add images, content carts, and other such features. 

These automation tools aren’t only limited to emails. You can also segment your SMS contacts based on different factors and then deploy different strategies that will be executed on their own. And the best thing is that you can even have a 2-way conversation with your subscribers through Klaviyo.

The subscription models of Klaviyo are a bit confusing. You can either pay separately for email and SMS marketing tools or you can bundle them together. Their packages start from $20/month but you can opt for their free packages. 

Pros:

• An effective email and text editor.

• Extremely easy to navigate.

• In-depth result analysis.

• You can monitor the complete journey of your subscriber from signing up to making a purchase.

Cons:

• Subscriptions are a bit expensive.

Editor’s Pick for email marketing software:

With such amazing products at our disposal, it could be a bit hard to choose a winner. However, what I recommend to small business owners is that you should…

Choose a marketing software that best suits their business model. 

If you are in the business of selling digital products, ConvertKit will be the best option for you. Its marketing automation capabilities are hard to beat.

If you’re a service provider, a local business, or have an online store, go with Constant Contact. You’re too busy to figure out how to use yet another online tool. When it comes to support, Constant Contact is the best email marketing software solution.

FAQs on email and SMS Marketing

Does email marketing still work in 2022?

Absolutely. Ever notice that when you go to a retail store, they want to email you your receipt? That is a great way for them to collect your email address so they can market to you again.

Does SMS/text marketing work better than email marketing?

In the United States, people are still pretty protective of their cell phone numbers. They don’t want SPAM texts dinging their phone all day long. But people do want to receive text messages from brands they like and trust.

How much should I spend on my marketing tools?

Every business had different budget needs. But if you don’t have the tools you need, you won’t get the results you want. One rule of thumb is to plan on spending 5% – 10% of your revenue on marketing.

Final thoughts on email marketing tools

Efficiency and affordability are two qualities that are extremely hard to find in email and text marketing software but are equally important for small businesses.

After working with small brands for years, I can understand that there is very little margin of error. You don’t have the time to try several software programs before sticking to one. You can just go through the list and choose a platform that suits you the most. Happy marketing!

Disclosure: Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links, which can provide compensation to me at no cost to you if you decide to purchase a paid product or service. These are items I’ve personally used and stand behind. This site is not intended to provide financial advice and is for entertainment only.